If you are doing this for a large classroom, as I am, you’ll need some easily acquired materials:

Turns out the school cafeteria uses milk bottles now. So in 2 days, I acquired the 28 caps I needed from the kiddos. In a zip-top bag, these were easily disinfected. After letting them dry, they are ready to go!

You’ll also need one marble per kiddo. I got a bag of them at the dollar store.

CDs or DVDs that are all scratched up and ready to recycle! (People had loads of these!)

Finally, you’ll need a glue stick, some markers and a hot glue gun. The hot glue gun will be used by an adult only.

For use in a classroom, I decided to do this step as prep. Put a line of hot glue inside the ‘inner circle’ and stick that marble in on the bottom side of the disc. It doesn’t take long.

We traced the CD and hand drew some continents. (Don’t laugh!) I know the earth isn’t flat, but it’s still a fun project!

Let the kiddos color in with markers (or other mediums). Thankfully if you do a bad job, it just looks like ocean currents when it spins! Feel free to add mountains, rivers, etc.

After they cut out the circle, put the label underneath a CD (one that doesn’t have a marble in it) to trace the inner circle. They can either cut the circle out OR just put it on top of the CD and pop a hole in the center of the paper. Honestly no one will see that part, the paper just needs room for the marble bump.

Students glue the paper on top of the CD.

Just hot glue the rim of the cap and put it on top. Within seconds, it’s ready to spin!